Deception: The Sunday Times Bestseller 2022

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In this book, we see just how strong and resilient women can be even when things literally "beat" us down! We see that sometimes the people closest to us can hurt us the most and how total strangers can become the best of friends! Belle is the first novel in the Belle series. It is 1910 in London, and a young girl has grown up in a brothel all her life without ever knowing it. Now that she is 15 years old, she has suddenly discovered that all is not as it seems in the Seven Dials. Even though she grew up there, Belle’s life is forever changed and her innocence gone forever when she sees one of the girls that lives there brutally murdered.

I've loved Lesley Pearse's books from the beginning. It's hard to believe Betrayal is book 31! It's just as good a read as all of the others. Amelia had a difficult childhood and is perhaps one of the reasons why as an adult she has allowed herself to be taken advantage off by the friends she trusted. Yet sometimes the best learnings and help come from the people who have first-hand experience of the challenges that hit from time to time. It is this personal experience that guides Amelia’s desire to do the right thing and help others and it is these characteristics that become central to the story. Eve Hathaway has no option but to leave her violent husband but as with all bullies Don Hathaway refuses to admit that he has a problem and can't let Eve and his children have the peaceful life they crave. Setting up a new life for herself and her children isn't easy for Eve but with sheer grit and determination she takes them out of poverty and into a more settled existence except that Eve is burdened by a dreadful secret which overshadows her future happiness. I can't help to admire Eve, Tabby and Ollie's transformation from beginning to end. Despite all the nastiness thrown at them, they've chosen to rise above it and make a better life for themselves. Faced with this staggering deception, Alice decides she must learn the whole, terrible truth about her mother.She is married now to her sweet husband. His name is Jimmy and he supports her as she supports them both on the hat shop she finally opened– her dream for so long, ever since she was young. But they can’t see what’s coming as the first world war gathers on the horizon and it is certain that a storm is coming. Belle’s life is so crazy but it’s about to change more than she ever knew possible– is she ready for it? With dreams of being a writer, she now works on a newspaper selling advertising. She very much keeps to herself with the occasional love interest but Amelia is very careful about any relationship she undertakes. She has seen the control that a man can exert and wishes for better choices in her own life. If the title is anything to go by, I should have been warned..but, I definitely was not prepared for the amount of Betrayal I was about to witness and live through Eve!

This is based in the 1970’s in West London. A time of power cuts and dustbin men going on strike. Amelias past family life was awful. A Father who drank aplenty and liked using his fists. A mother quite partial to the bottle too. Who neglected her children and had to fend for themselves. It’s 1970 and Amelia White lives alone in a small bedsit in Shepherd’s Bush, London. This tiny room has become her oasis, after escaping from her violent father and downtrodden mother.Pearse’s Belle Series debuted in 2011 with the publication of Belle. It was followed by The Promise, where main character Belle is desperate to do anything to make her life better. The third book in the series came out in 2014 and is titled Survivor. A natural storyteller, Lesley has lived an eventful life but is also inspired by others’ stories of courage and adversity, often giving voice to women lost in history and people damaged by their childhood experiences.’

Eve should never have married Don Hathaway. Yes, he gave her two beautiful children - Olly and Tabitha - but he is a bully. Worse than that, he hurts her.

Publication Order of Ellie Books

Got to say I don’t think I am the target audience for this book, generally I read a lot of what is classed ‘women’s fiction’ and love it but this for me actually did feel it was correctly labelled, a bit Mills and Boon ish in large swathes of it The Promise is set in 1914 in London and reunites the reader with Belle Reilly in this sequel to Belle. Belle has finally found happiness and a life she has always wanted thanks to her husband Jimmy. Now she has achieved another dream that she has always wanted to follow; owning and running a hat shop. But when the first world war starts to slowly arrive like a ship on the horizon, Belle’s crazy life is about to change in ways that she never even saw coming. Eve is a battered wife who lives in constant fear of her violent husband Don. She eventually finds the courage to leave him, taking their two children, Olly and Tabitha, with her. In due course she gains the legal right to return to the marital home with her kids. Don now lives elsewhere with his new girlfriend. However, Eve hasn't seen the last of him. He keeps retuning to his garden shed in the dead of night to sleep off a drunken stupor. Eve finally snaps and makes a terrible decision that has repercussions for everyone.